February 2009

Wendell Barnhouse is a nationally-known and respected columnist who has spent over 20 years covering collegiate athletics. He has reported from 23 Final Fours and more than three dozen bowl games and has written about the Big 12 and its schools since the conference's beginning. Barnhouse will be updating the Big 12 Insider on happenings and behind-the-scenes information about the conference.

Wednesday, Feb. 25

Linking upJeff Wolfert, the most accurate kicker in Division I-A history, originally went to Missouri on a diving scholarship. He switched to football but he is competing in diving for the Tigers at this week's Big 12 championships in Columbia. Check out the Day One video highlights.

Mike Jones of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes how Kevin Durant, whose No. 35 was retired at halftime Wednesday night, impacted the Texas prorgram in his one marvelous season in Austin.

Interesting news out of the Big Ten Conference. The league is tweaking its football tiebreaker rules. One of its tiebreakers will mirror a current tiebreaker in the Big 12 - where a team finishes in the BCS standings. We all know how well that can work out.

Coach of year award named for UT's KearneyThe U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) will name its Division I Women’s Indoor Track & Field Coach of the Year award in honor of USTFCCCA Hall of Famer and University of Texas women’s head coach Beverly Kearney.

“This award means an awful lot to me,” Kearney said in a news release. “This is a huge and prestigious honor, especially when you look at the caliber of coaches across the nation and historically. I hope that my career is a reflection of all the greatness the surrounds me in the sport.”

During her 27-year coaching career, Kearney has had four NCAA indoor championships, three outdoor championships and 20 conference titles. During her 16-year career at Texas, Kearney's teams have finished in the top 11 in the NCAA Indoor Championships every year. That includes back-to-back team titles in 1998-99 plus a title in 2006.

The 2009 Beverly Kearney Women’s Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year Award will be announced March 17.

Tom Dienhart of Rivals.com offers this Q and A with Texas Tech coach Mike Leach following the resolution of his contract extension.

Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn and football coach Dan Hawkins held a "Your Team" town hall meeting on campus this week.

With the sudden transfer of Patrick Witt, Zac Lee goes from co-favorite to likely starter at quarterback at Nebraska.

Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com writes about how Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford and basketball star Blake Griffin have known each other for years. If Griffin becomes this season's player of the year, the duo will make history.

Mike Anderson, Missouri: The Tigers were picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 and earned zero votes in the preseason Top 25 polls. But Anderson has integrated seven newcomers with a few solid veterans to produce a 23-4 team that is ranked in the top 10 and has a shot at the Big 12 title. There's a reason Mizzou athletic director Mike Alden might need to launch a pre-emptive contract extension to discourage Alabama from courting the Birmingham native to return home and coach the Crimson Tide.

Bill Self, Kansas: The Jayhawks hemorrhaged experienced talent from their national championship team: no Mario Chalmers, no Russell Robinson, no Darrell Arthur, no Darnell Jackson, no Brandon Rush. No matter. Self has coalesced a precocious group of youngsters around tough holdovers Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich to create a potential Big 12 title team. Anderson and Self can potentially battle for first place and league coach of the year honors this weekend in Lawrence.

Tuesday, Feb. 24

Big shot for Texas A&MIf Texas A&M finds itself in the NCAA Tournament on March 15, it might look back on Tuesday night's victory as the magical moment.

The Aggies trailed at Nebraska by 18 points with 14 minutes to play but rallied for a 57-55 victory. Senior Josh Carter's 3-pointer from the top of the key swished and beat the buzzer to give A&M its 20th win against eight losses.

The Aggies are 6-7 in the Big 12 with a favorable closing schedule. Nebraska dropped to 6-7 in the conference and is 16-10 overall. The loss might be too much for the Cornhuskers to overcome in terms of earning an NCAA tourney spot.

Also Tuesday night, Iowa State defeated visiting Baylor, 71-62. The loss drops the Bears to 16-11 overall and 4-9 in Big 12 play. No Big 12 team has earned an at-large NCAA Tournament bid with a 7-9 record; that's the best Baylor can do.

Television worth watchingWell, ESPN certainly is getting its money's worth for its contract with the Big 12.

Monday night: With Griffin sidelined, Kansas goes into Lloyd Noble Center and takes control of the Big 12 regular-season race with an impressive victory.

Tuesday night: Viewers on ESPN2 hear analyst Doug Gottlieb have a Billy Packer moment. With Nebraska leading Texas A&M by 15 in the second half, Gottlieb declares the Huskers the winners. The Aggies, of course, rally to win, 57-55, on Josh Carter's buzzer-beating 3-pointer. (When the Aggies closed to within five points, Gottlieb admitted he had been wrong to concede the outcome.)

A three-team raceKansas' victory at Oklahoma Monday night - the Sooners' second loss in three days - seriously altered the Big 12 standings.

Before losing at Texas, Oklahoma was undefeated and appeared a real threat to become the second team go through a 16-game Big 12 schedule undefeated. Then came the concussion suffered by Blake Griffin, the loss to the Longhorns and then another loss with Griffin sitting on the bench.

The current standings: Kansas 12-1; Oklahoma 11-2; Missouri 10-2. The schedule makes for an interesting finish to the regular season.

The Jayhawks' only Big 12 loss came at Missouri. The Tigers visit Kansas Sunday. Kansas has the tiebreaker advantage over Oklahoma but a Missouri victory would give the Tigers the season sweep and put them at a tiebreaker advantage over KU.

However, Missouri still has to play Oklahoma. The Sooners visit Columbia on March 4.

Kansas and Oklahoma each have three conference games remaining while Missouri has four. Those 10 results will determine the regular-season champion.

Reporting from Iowa State, Alison LaceyIowa State junior guard Alison Lacey has been contributing short reports about the Cyclones to the New York Times' The Quad blog. Here is one of her recent efforts:

With school, traveling for basketball and practice, getting sick at this time of year is common for our team. With 15 girls seeing one another every day and being around one another so much, it takes only one girl to get sick before a trickle-down effect begins.

This year, Heather Ezell was the first culprit to get sick. The team had just got on the bus for our trip to play Nebraska in Lincoln. Heather got on looking a little tired and complaining of a sore throat. “Oh great,” I thought. “She’s my roommate for the trip. If she gets sick, I will get sick.”

After a three-hour bus ride, Heather was not feeling any better, and as the rest of the team left to eat dinner, Heather stayed at the hotel to sleep. I returned from dinner to find her still looking ill.

“I have strep throat, I just know it” she said. “O.K., here is a yellow Powerade,” I said. “I’m moving into another room.”

Having had strep throat before and knowing how painful it is there was no way I was staying in there with the chance of catching it.

A couple of days after we returned, Shellie Mosman was the next victim, as she came down with a cold. Less than a week later, I began to feel sick and was having trouble breathing during practice. I went to the doctor and was told I had bronchitis. After two days off from practice, I was off to Boulder to play Colorado.

Amanda Nisleit was lucky enough to be my roommate. After a long plane ride, dinner and practice, we got back to the hotel and were ready to go to bed. At 10 o’clock, just as I was getting comfortable, I heard a giggle coming from the bathroom. “What are you doing in there?” I screamed out.

“Help me,” she yelled back while still giggling.

I walked into the bathroom to find the toilet overflowing like a waterfall. Amanda had towels flying everywhere to try and soak up what was now a small swimming pool in our bathroom.

We called the front desk frantically: “Please come quick, our toilet is overflowing, and it’s really bad.” We went back into the bathroom to try to stop the water. Amanda took the top off of the toilet.

“What are you going to do with that?” I said. “Do you know what you do to fix it?”

She said: “No, but that’s what you do when something is wrong with a toilet — you take the top off it. I just don’t know what people fiddle with after that.”

We both stood there with glasses in our hands; after the glass had filled with water we would dump it into the bath. Finally a staff member came to help with a plunger, but the water had already overflowed from the bathroom into our room and into the hallway. It took another hour for staff members to get rid of all the water.

It is funny things like this that make great memories for our team, and we love to talk about the funny and unusual things that happen to us.

Monday, Feb. 23

Sudden change in fortuneIf you believe in karma, then you can understand why the men's and women's teams at Oklahoma were due to have the kind of buzzard's luck each endured over the last 48 hours.

The basketball teams had combined to win 49 games and lose four in rising to the No. 2 spot in both polls. Coupled with the football team's success, it seemed that Oklahoma teams could do no wrong.

Fate started frowing Saturday night in Austin with the men's team. The Sooners were in position to move up to No. 1 with a victory over Texas. But sophomore Blake Griffin suffered a concussion in the first half and didn't play in the second half as the Longhorns made plays down the stretch for a 73-68 victory.

That loss increased the importance of the Big Monday visit by Kansas. And with Griffin still sidelined, the Jayhawks stunned the Sooners, 87-78. Oklahoma built a 22-8 lead in the first 10 minutes, trailed by 20 in the second and rallied to within three points with three minutes to play.

In two days, Oklahoma went from undefeated and in first place in the Big 12 to 11-2 and second place. The Sooners are tied with third-place Missouri (10-2) in the loss column. The Jayhawks' victory also gave Kansas the tiebreaker edge over the Sooners.

Also on Big Monday, Oklahoma's women's team let a 14-point second half lead get away and committed a season-high 29 turnovers in a 57-56 loss at Texas A&M. The Sooners, who had defeated second-place Baylor Saturday, still has a comfortable lead in the Big 12 standings. The loss to the Aggies ended OU's 20-game winning streak.

And to add injury to insult, freshman guard Whitney Hand - who is averaging 9.2 points per game is the Sooners' top 3-point shooter - underwent surgery on the index finger of her left hand and will be out four weeks. That means she might be back if Oklahoma reaches an NCAA Tournament regional.

Blake Griffin to miss Big Monday gameOklahoma sophomore Blake Griffin won't play for the Sooners when Kansas visits for an important Big 12 Big Monday game (8 p.m. CST, ESPN).

Here's the official release from the school:

NORMAN, Okla. - University of Oklahoma men's basketball head coach Jeff Capel announced this afternoon that sophomore forward Blake Griffin will miss tonight's game against Kansas.

After visiting with OU's medical staff early this afternoon, Capel said that Griffin, who leads the Big 12 in scoring and leads the nation in rebounding, is still recovering from a concussion sustained in Saturday's game at Texas. Griffin's return to action is not known.

Griffin is averaging 22.0 points and 13.8 rebounds while shooting a Big 12-best .632 from the field. He also leads the country with 22 double-doubles.

The 6-10, 251-pounder from Oklahoma City played just 11 minutes Saturday at Texas.

Tonight's matchup in Norman will give the winner sole possession of first place in the Big 12 race with three games remaining in the regular season. OU is 25-2 overall, 11-1 in conference play and is ranked No. 3 in both major polls. Kansas is 22-5, 11-1 and ranked 15th in both polls.

Friday, Feb. 20

Four links and a noteTexas Tech and coach Mike Leach avoided what could have been a contentious board of regents meeting by agreeing to a contract extension.

ESPN.com's Tim Griffin points out that there might be a rift between Mike Leach and Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers that can never be repaired.

Iowa State coach Greg McDermott's son Doug is a 6-7 junior post at Ames High School. Despite a busy schedule, his dad tries to make as many games as he can.

A 10-year old Kansas University fan with an incurable lung disease got special treatment Wednesday night when the Jayhawks beat Iowa State (link includes video).

And congratulations to Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe. He's one of three new appointees to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. Beebe's term on the committee starts on Sept. 1, 2009.

Wednesday, Feb. 18

Hot linksThe Big 12 Conference/Special Olympics public service announcement produced by Rising Creek Pictures won a Telly Award (2nd place) in the best sports commercial category.

Last Saturday's Kansas-Kansas State game served to turn up the heat on the Sunflower State rivalry.

“Coach Leach has declined our $12.7 million contract,” Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said in a statement released by the athletic department. “We will enter the decision-making process and should have some announcements by next week. Our decisions will be based on the best interest of Texas Tech and all of its supporters.”

Monday, Feb. 16

Soap opera in LubbockBruce Feldman of ESPN.com lists the contract impasse between Texas Tech and coach Mike Leach as the No. 1 off-season soap opera. The school has set a Tuesday deadline for Leach to sign a new deal or go into the 2009 season under his current deal. The situation has become a standoff and now there's a public rally being organized for Tuesday morning and Leach has hired a public relations firm.

Here's Feldman's take on the story:

What a mess this is. Leach is coming off the best season in school history while the bulk of Tech's other athletic programs are really struggling, but the contract negotiations between the two sides have dragged on and on. Usually, contract talks take about two weeks. This thing has lasted a year, and we're on the brink of Tech's deadline, which is Tuesday. Leach said he was all set to agree on the deal before Tech added in four terms, two of which were rare for coaching contracts. One said that all the money from his personal speaking properties - for example, if he makes an appearance or writes a book about his life in Wyoming - would go to Tech.

Leach's representatives at IMG counteroffered, asking for the same salary while keeping the terms of his current deal. However, on Friday, Tech athletic director Gerald Myers issued a statement saying that doing so would make Leach too expensive to fire. Now there is talk of a rally in support of Leach outside the Tech football offices Tuesday at 11 a.m.

"As with any great event, several people helped organize it, and information has been sent to 50,000 people through e-mail, Facebook, local media and fan-site message boards," says 28-year-old Tech grad John Baucum, one of the rally's organizers. "I am in contact with the student newspaper right now, and a local business is going to pass out fliers about the event around campus. I have no idea how many to expect. I'm hoping that we have several hundred people. A thousand or more would be awesome."

Baucum majored in journalism and earned his bachelor's degree in 2003 and a master's in sports management in 2007. He says he and others in his group don't want to see Leach leaving Lubbock any time soon. "I'm hoping that the rally shows both sides that the fans are steadfast in their support of Leach and that we're hoping both sides can come together and reach an agreement on what's become a contract stalemate at this point. Mike Leach and his family want to be here, there's no doubt in my mind about that."

Who's No. 1?Top-ranked Connecticut lost in Hartford, Conn., to fourth-ranked Pittsburgh, 76-68, in a Big Monday game. That leaves open the possibility that second-ranked Oklahoma (25-1) can take over the top ranking.

All the Sooners need to do is win at Texas Saturday night. The Longhorns have lost four of six following Monday night's 81-66 loss at Texas A&M and sorely need a victory.

Oklahoma's men's team was last ranked No. 1 in the polls near the ende of the 1989-90 season.

Newsy notes and more links* ESPN.com's Doug Gottlieb believes that Oklahoma has a good chance of winning the national championship: "Juan Pattillo has given Oklahoma a legit chance to win the national title. While the Sooners are still not the same team without Blake Griffin on the floor, Pattillo - who was a heavily recruited juco transfer who was going to redshirt in order to replace Griffin next year - is playing like an All-Big 12 power forward, and OU can more than make do when Griffin is on the bench."

* Texas will switch to FieldTurf at Royal-Memorial Stadium and its practice fields. UT will become the 68th of the 119 Division I-A schools to install FieldTurf. Four other Big 12 schools use FieldTurf. When the Longhorns played the Aggies on Thanksgiving night, the natural grass surface was choppy and slippery. "I think we'll see a lot more people going to artificial turf," Texas coach Mack Brown told the Austin American-Statesman. "As a staff, 100 percent, we liked grass. We wished it could work out. But artificial turf is so much better now than it's ever been."

* Nebraska's Red-White Spring Game is April 18 and the school is expecting Memorial Stadium (official capacity: 81,067) to be sold out. As of late last week, Nebraska had sold 63,000 tickets at $10 each. For the first time, most of the spring game tickets are being sold on a reserved-seat basis.

* Oklahoma's 12th-ranked wrestling team routed Michigan State, 21-8, Sunday. The victory gave the Sooners a 15-0 non-conference record this season and extended the school's winning streak to 17 against non-conference foes.

* Ted Uhlaender, who played baseball at Baylor and is one of two former BU players to play in a World Series, died Thursday at the age of 68. Uhlaender had been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer about a year ago. An outfield, Uhlander played eight seasons with the Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds, finishing with a lifetime .263 average and 285 RBIs. He played in the 1972 World Series with Cincinnati.

* Oklahoman columnist Berry Tramel points out that Oklahoma's top three programs - football, men's basketball and women's basketball - have a combined record of 59-5. As Tramel points out, in 2001-02 the men's and women's teams reached the Final Four and the Sooners went 12-2 in football.

* Rivals.com's college football senior writer Olin Buchanan lists the 10 most explosive players in college football for 2009 and three are from the Big 12.

* ESPN.com's Tim Griffin, who is tireless in his coverage of Big 12 football, provides this preview of spring practice for each school.

* New Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads discusses a variety of topics in this Q and A.

* In the wake of Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford using some colorful language during a game, here's an interesting take on profanity in sports.

Links for a President's DayThe Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette is conducting a straw poll of 50 media representatives regarding the men's college player of the year. In the two surveys thus far, Oklahoma's Blake Griffin has been the choice.

Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com writes that Texas Tech's administration needs to sign Mike Leach to a new contract ASAP.

Baylor center Josh Lomers has battled asthma since he was seven years old.

Kirk Schulz, recently named Kansas State's president, has a passion for collegiate sports.

Saturday, Feb. 14

Thoughts and prayersTom Gilbert, the Kansas State sports information director who handles the men's basketball team, missed Saturday's game with Kansas. His father Gerald died and Tom was in Georgia to be with his family. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Tom and his family.

Saturday, Feb. 7

Links for a SaturdayTwo nice reads from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. This one deals with Baylor women's coach Kim Mulkey while this one profiles Oklahoma freshman Willie Warren.

Negotiations between Texas Tech and football coach Mike Leach apparently have reached an impasse, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Here's the main story with another story about the apparent rift between the board of directors and Leach's agents.

When Texas Tech coach Pat Knight was ejected from his team's game with Nebraska a week ago, Brad Sham was the television play-by-play voice. And he did the right thing by not invoking Bob Knight's name at any time during the incident.

Former Baylor star and 11-year NBA veteran Michael Williams owns a Dallas-based construction company that was involved in building the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Nebraska's wrestling team made history with its dual-meet victory over Oklahoma State. It was the first time the Huskers had defeated the Cowboys in Lincoln since 1922.

Wednesday, Feb. 4

Hoops heavenYour Big 12 Insider loves him some ESPN360.com. Thanks to the World Wide Leader on the World Wide Web, it has become possible to multi-watch conference games. It can be a little schizophrenic at times but it's better than just waiting for the final scores.

The four Big 12 games Wednesday night were decided by a total of 13 points. As Your Insider flipped back and forth between Missouri-Texas and Texas Tech-Oklahoma State on the old reliable flat screen, he was able to monitor Texas A&M's near-upset at second-ranked Oklahoma on ESPN360.com via the usually reliable laptop.

And the night ended with viewing, also via the wonders of Al Gore's invention, Nebraska's gut-check victory at Colorado. If seeing is believing, then watching four games in less than four hours can validate one's belief in technology.

What they're writingHere are some Big 12 observations from Seth Davis of SI.com:

* Oklahoma guard Willie Warren is challenging Georgetown's Greg Monroe for national freshman of the year. Warren, who is averaging 15.5 points on 39.4 percent shooting, scored 29 points during the Sooners' win over Iowa State on Saturday.

* Kansas could really take a step up if Mario Little emerges as a consistent scorer. The 6-5 junior college transfer missed the Jayhawks' first 12 games because of injuries, and he almost decided to redshirt. He scored 12 points off the bench in Kansas' win at Baylor on Monday night. It was just his second double-digit scoring night of the season, but it gave the Jayhawks an important lift on a night when Sherron Collins wasn't shooting well and Cole Aldrich was limited by foul trouble.

* Jeff Capel is the first, second and third choice at Georgia. In fact, Georgia had an offer ready to go after Capel last year until Dennis Felton saved his job by winning the SEC tournament. You can be sure a lot of schools will go after Capel this spring, but they will have a formidable adversary in OU athletic director Joe Castiglione, who may well be the best AD in the country.

* Before the season, ESPN.com's Pat Forde listed Oklahoma's Willie Warren as one of five impact freshmen this season. Here's Forde's mid-season update:Warren has come through even better than expected, serving as a strong perimeter complement to powerhouse Blake Griffin. He's averaging 15.5 points per game and, unlike many freshmen, he's shooting excellent percentages: 51 percent from the field, 39 percent from 3-point range and 78 percent from the line. Warren's 3-point stroke has gotten better as the season has gone along; he's made 31 of his past 65 3s over Oklahoma's past 13 games.

* Andy Katz of ESPN.com on Oklahoma adding to its depth:The decision by Juan Pattillo to remove his redshirt status has been a great one for Oklahoma. He is averaging 10.3 points, 2.7 boards and 19 minutes a game over the past three games. He's also 12-of-18 from the field and 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. The JC transfer didn't get eligible until August and missed summer conditioning. He was also banged up and wasn't able to practice as much. But he took the redshirt status away before the Texas game Jan. 12. Since then, he has turned into a great find off the bench at both ends of the court.

* Second-ranked Oklahoma (17-2) appears to be a solid favorite to reach this year's Final Four. A game against the defending national champion Volunteers, 16-4 and ranked 13th, is a good litmus test for OU's post-season readiness.

* Tennessee coach Pat Summitt will be trying to win her 1,000th game.

* The game will be televised on ESPN2 at 6:30 p.m. The announcing crew will be Brent Musburger, Nancy Lieberman and former Texas Tech coach Bob Knight, the winningest coach in Division I men’s college basketball with 902 victories. It will be the first women's game that Knight will work as an analyst.

"Anyone who wins 1,000 times at anything is special," Knight said in a news release supplied by ESPN.

Sunday, Feb. 1

Sunday readingFurman Bisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a source tells him that former Texas Tech coach Bob Knight is interested in the coaching job at Georgia.

Not only did Iowa State's women's team upset visiting Kansas State Saturday night in Hilton Coliseum, the Cyclones honored former players including those who played on the 1998-99 team that reached the Elite Eight with an upset of Connecticut.

ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel, one of the best there is at covering college football, talked to a number of coaches about how to become a good recruiter. With national signing day Wednesday, he came up with an interesting Ten Commandments.

It wasn't football and it wasn't 12 vs. 12. Nonetheless, the Big 12 vs. SEC Showdown at the Gilliam Indoor Track and Field Stadium was a success. Texas A&M, Texas and Missouri outscored Florida, LSU and Ole Miss 332-279 on the men's side and 359-226 in women's competition.

Oklahoma staged a unique event Friday night in Lloyd Noble Center - Beauty And The Beast. On one side of the floor, the Sooners' wrestlers defeated North Carolina State 38-6 while at the same time on the other half of the floor the Sooners' women's gymnastics team beat Minnesota 196.500-195.675.

Video linksThe men's and women's teams at Kansas came together to stage their own version the popular "High School Musical" made-for-TV movies. They call it "Jayrock." Scroll down to "High School Musical Video Of The Day" item. You can also see it here.

Matt Davison is famous for making the touchdown catch in 1997 at Missouri after the ball was kicked by a teammate. He's now the analyst on Cornhuskers football and basketball games. At Saturday's Oklahoma State game, a fan from the crowd was selected to make a half-court shot for money ... or he could let Davison take the shot. The fan shot and missed. Davison then took a shot for fun. Click the video to see what happened. (Scroll down to item headlined "Matt Davison Still Has Magic Touch.")